Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

Malaysia‘s Global Halal Hub – ―a huge opportunity to fail!‖
Shahidan Shafie, Univesiti of Malaya, Malaysia
This is a purely qualitative-based research employing in-depth interviews, field observations and focus group
discussions on the subject of halal. Halal is an Arabic term which means ―permissible.‖ In food, halal is defined as
―food not made of, or containing parts of animal origin which Islamic law forbids.‖ Halal covers the aspects of
slaughtering, storage, display, preparation, hygiene and sanitation. In the Muslim-majority Malaysia, this concept is an
absolute key to consumption. Marketers who intend to penetrate Malaysia‘s mass market must know the halal-status of
their products.
Malaysia has incorporated Halal agenda in the past four Strategic Plans. In the current Ninth Malaysia Plan (covering
the year 2006-2010), the Government has indicated that Malaysia will be developed as a center for the certification of
Halal products. In addition, the Malaysia‘s Halal certification initiative handled by its Department of Islamic
Development (or locally known as JAKIM) - a division under the purview of the Prime Minister‘s Department, has
been tasked to promote this certification process worldwide.
During the tenure of the previous Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Abdullah Hj. Ahmad Badawi) the halal hub project
appeared to complement well with the Prime Minister‘s effort to promote the concept of civilized Islam, also known as
―Islam Hadhari.‖ Malaysia which claims to be a model of a progressive and moderate Islamic nation was also the
previous Chairman of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). This effort is being seen as a strategy to
capitalize on Malaysia‘s high standing among the OIC countries.
In order to increase the awareness of Malaysia‘s halal initiatives among the international communities, the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry has set-up branch offices abroad to facilitate the promotion of Malaysia‘s halal hub
infrastructure. Kuala Lumpur also has successfully held halal-related conferences and exhibitions. One of them is the
Malaysian International Halal Showcase which is regarded as the biggest halal-related exhibition worldwide.
Malaysia‘s launch of the Halal Standards (M.S. 1500:2004) is another initiative to show to the world its commitment to
make Malaysia the benchmark for halal certification. This standard was also adopted by the World Health
Organization‘s Codex Alimentarius.
Despite the heavy investments to promote halal hub globally, Malaysia appeared to face many internal and external
challenges which, if not address urgently, will represent a ―huge opportunity to fail‖ in this effort.
Among the issues that need to be addressed include: the inconsistency of definition of halal on the aspect of
slaughtering of animal; the difference in views involving consumption by different school of thoughts (madzhabs); the
introduction of halal logo by individual firms; the promotion of the Islamic Manufacturing Practices (IMP) based on the
concept of Halalan Toyyiban (Halal and Wholesome) which may confuse the public; the rampant display of Quranic
scriptures and/or Arabic characters at restaurants and food-serving outlets (to indirectly signal that the premises offer
halal foods); the use of Arabic-sounded or Islamic brand names such as the case of a toothpaste brand; the
unavailability of Halal Act; the continuous changes in the role of JAKIM and Halal Development Council (HDC); and
the lack of collaboration among the world‘s halal-certification authorities which could undermine the ―market value‖ of
halal among the consumers, especially the Muslims.
It appears that the Halal awareness in Malaysia continues to rise, not so much from the promotional efforts held by the
authorities but more due to the media highlights over controversies on the misused of halal certification and logo. These
cases involved the local as well as international food-processing companies, local and global fast-food franchise
operators as well as local poultry and abbatoirs. One of the biggest blunders involved the IKEA furniture outlet‘s
restaurant.
These cases demonstrate the challenges faced by the authority with regards to the enforcement. The lack of enforcement
by the personnel of the Department of Islamic Development could be attributed to the inexistence of a law specific to
the issues of halal. Currently, JAKIM has had to depend on the assistance from the Ministry of Domestic Trade &
Consumer Affairs in monitoring this sort of cases. This is due to the fact that halal currently falls under the Ministry‘s
Trade Description Act 1972 as a result, only the Ministry officials could act on the culprits. The lack of enforcement has
apparently caused the public to question the validity on some of the products claiming to be halal.
Furthermore, there were reports that within the government bodies themselves, there seem to be lack of cooperation.
The Department of Islamic Development sometimes fails to get assistance from the Ministry of Domestic Trade &
Consumer Affairs which is seen to be ―more authoritative.‖ However the latter Ministry also has its own problems –
those that not necessarily relate to halal products (e.g. fighting pirated VCD distribution, price fixing, false in-store
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